Cheating at Death: Re-examining Jaqen's Bargain

[hiemal]

2 hours ago, Megorova said:

What is readers' general opinion about why Jaqen was in Westeros, what was his mission prior he met Arya?

 

I have read a theory that Faceless Men were searching info how to kill dragons, and that's why after parting with Arya, Jaqen went to Citadel.

Though to me this theory seems unlikely. Because at that time dragons were still little. So if FM wanted to get rid of them, they could have done it with average arrows.

Also I have a theory that FM and Iron Bank are parts of the same organisation. At about that time, when Arya met Jaqen, Iron Bank had a problem with Tywin Lannister. So they have sent Jaqen to spy after Lannisters. Probably to gather information whether Lannisters will be able to eventually pay their debt or not. Whether they can't at this moment pay what they own to IB, or are they don't want to pay, and thus are trying to trick IB.

Patchface is also a Faceless Man. He's also the one who convinced Iron Bank to give money to Night's Watch.

Maybe FM also received a prophecy about approaching doom, and they know about the Prince that was promised. So they have sent Jaqen to Westeros, to search info about who this Prince may be. Also maybe they originally thought that Rhaegar Targaryen was somehow connected to the prophecy. He died because, for some reason, he kidnapped Lyanna Stark, and last person who saw Lyanna, when she was still alive, was her brother Ned. Thus when Ned was imprisoned by Lannisters, Jaqen went into RK's dungeons and questioned Ned about Lyanna and Rhaegar.

Thus they found information that Rhaegar had a child with Lyanna. And that there may be some clues or evidences about their secret marriage, and Jon's legitimate status. So to find those evidences Jaqen went to Citadel.

FM know that Jon Snow may be son of Rhaegar Targaryen and Lyanna Stark, and they also think that he may be the Prince that was promised. So when Jon was killed by Brothers, Patchface will resurect him.  Or rather Ghost, Patchface and Melisandre. Ghost's body will be a temporary vessel for Jon's soul, until he will be resurected. And his resurection will be different from Berric's and Cat's, because he will be revived by magic of two gods - Lord of Light and Many-Faced God.

Cool tinfoil! New stuff is always appreciated here, and this is a new one to me!

[LynnS]

1 hour ago, Megorova said:

It could be about Citadel's white ravens, and approaching winter, not about someone who is an outsider/black sheep. Because Patchface was saying about crows not a crow. Or maybe white crows are wights, NW's Brothers that all will be killed by Others and become wights. Dead Brothers of NW - white crows. So it could be a prophecy that they all will die.

When Patchface first sees Jon Snow; he announces him by saying "the crow, the crow" an then he adds "under the sea, the crows are white as snow."  The crow is Jon.  He then compares the crows under the sea to Jon and says they are as white as snow.  There are multiple meanings. Who is Patchface referring to when he names the crows white as snow.  Is it the Night's Watch or something else?  Who are the black sheep? The ones who don't belong?    

[Megorova]

1 hour ago, LynnS said:

When Patchface first sees Jon Snow; he announces him by saying "the crow, the crow" an then he adds "under the sea, the crows are white as snow."  The crow is Jon.  He then compares the crows under the sea to Jon and says they are as white as snow.  There are multiple meanings. Who is Patchface referring to when he names the crows white as snow.  Is it the Night's Watch or something else?  Who are the black sheep? The ones who don't belong?    

Yes, black sheeps are those who are different, or don't belong with others. Same as white crows. Though in world of Planetos, white crows don't have that kind of meaning - outcasts - they just symbolise winter.

Though what kind of connection is between Jon and crows under the sea? What is the meaning of this phrase? There really could be many meanings. Though I think that it's something about death. For example crows under the sea, are drowned birds. So is it a reference to something out of ironborns culture? - something like what they say "What is dead may never die" <- Patchface has forseen that Jon will be killed, and then resurected, so he will become immortal, or something like that.

Or white crows under water could be dead Brothers of NW turned into wights.

Or if what he said is only about Jon, then I don't understand why he is saying crows, multiple instead of one. And also what's the meaning of crows white as Jon Snow? Doesn't make sense. Or maybe it means that the wildlings will become watchers on The Wall. Previously they were outcasts, those that don't belong, but soon will become Brothers of NW. Thus - white crows.

[LiveFirstDieLater]

21 hours ago, LynnS said:

@ravenous reader  Yes, the dragons have scales and leathery wings but how do we account for the story that Sansa was a wolf who flew out of a tower with leathery wings. 
 

Bran Vras makes the connection to the Whents (bats) and the Tully's (fish scales for feathers) through the maternal line.  Ned and Catelyn's offspring are wolves with batwings.  Dragons are lizards with scales and leathery wings.

Just going back to Patchface, something else:

"The crow, the crow, under the sea, the crows are white as snow."

A white crow is a Russian idiom equivalent to calling someone a black sheep. 

. 

A few things here I'm gonna add...

Patchface and his little jingles are for sure interesting, but I'm not totally sold on how to read them.

As pointed out above, the scales are probably talking about fish...

The "white crow" Russian idiom is super interesting and I didn't know it!

Repeated in every book is some variation on "the crow calls the raven black"... a rephrasing of "the pot calls the kettle black", an English idiom with a different meaning more about hypocrisy.

There are no white crows in the series... there are white ravens.

Crows are not ravens...

The White Ravens herald winter. 

 

"The shadows come to dance, my lord, dance my lord, dance my lord," the fool sang on, swinging his head and making his bells clang and clatter. Bong dong, ring-a-ling, bong dong.

"Lord," the white raven shrieked. "Lord, lord, lord." 

"A fool sings what he will," the maester told his anxious princess. "You must not take his words to heart. On the morrow he may remember another song, and this one will never be heard again." He can sing prettily in four tongues, Lord Steffon had written . . .

 

And the White Ravens don't get along with the black ravens...

 

"Archmaester Walgrave has his chambers in the west tower, below the white rookery," Alleras told him. "The whiteravens and the black ones quarrel like Dornishmen and Marchers, so they keep them apart."

 

Nor are they Albinos... and do not have the red eyes so beloved of the Old Gods.

[YOVMO]

On ‎11‎/‎19‎/‎2017 at 8:07 AM, ravenous reader said:

In the case of the Black Gate, the key which unlocks the weirwood door is the utterance of Sam's Night's Watch oath 'I am the sword...' -- the words themselves representing a virtual sword, which in @YOVMO's parlance 'pierces the hymen' in the darkness...a brilliant way of thinking about how GRRM often introduces a sexual element, which strays on the dark side of eros, into his symbolism.  Sam provides the key (=words), while Bran (the hand?) is fed to the gaping maw, making the gate a mouth and cervix simultaneously.  Bran is going 'under the sea' into the realm of the 'undead' -- in fact, Sam is made to promise magical-number-thrice to ensure that Bran 'stays dead'.  Thus, if the Black Gate can be compared to the female anatomy -- which is fitting, seeing as we're dealing with (re)births -- then we can say that Bran being taken up into the gate is figuratively penetrating the womb, or 'going back into the womb'; i.e. going into the womb in reverse, making Bran on a symbolic level either a penis or an 'unfetus', one of the 'neverborn', as it were. 

OK, this might get strange but let's do it.

 

So Georges Bataille in his book Eroticism: Death and Sensuality says "There is no better way to know death than to link it with some licentious image." (he attributes it to De Sade, though I have never found the De Sade quote) and also "Inevitably linked with the moment of climax, there is a minor rupture suggestive of death; and conversely the idea of death may play a part in setting sensuality in motion."

 

This linking of death and sensuality and eroticism goes back as far as one can possibly look.  

 

Take for example the Proem of Parmenides which evokes the black gate that Sam and the gang travel through, but also in increadibly sensual and also has direct relevance to Bran's education (will come back to this) This was written some 500 years before Christ and this linking of going into the underworld, that journey being sexual and a divine education happening is there yet.

Quote

The car that bears me carried me as far as ever my heart desired,
when it had brought me and set me on the renowned way
of the goddess, which leads the man who knows through all the towns.^[1]
On that way was I borne along; for on it did the wise steeds carry me,
drawing my car, and maidens showed the way.
And the axle, glowing in the socket—
for it was urged round by the whirling
wheels at each end—gave forth a sound as of a pipe,
when the daughters of the Sun, hasting to convey me into the light,
threw back their veils from off their faces and left the abode of Night.

There are the gates of the ways of Night and Day,^[2]
fitted above with a lintel and below with a threshold of stone.
They themselves, high in the air, are closed by mighty doors,
and Avenging Justice keeps the keys that fit them.
Her did the maidens entreat with gentle words
and cunningly persuade to unfasten without demur the bolted bars
from the gates. Then, when the doors were thrown back,
they disclosed a wide opening,
when their brazen posts fitted with rivets and nails
swung back one after the other. Straight through them,
on the broad way, did the maidens guide the horses and the car,
and the goddess greeted me kindly, and took
my right hand in hers, and spake to me these words:

Welcome, O youth, that comest to my abode on the car
that bears thee tended by immortal charioteers!
It is no ill chance, but right and justice that has sent thee forth to travel
on this way. Far, indeed, does it lie from the beaten track of men!
Meet it is that thou shouldst learn all things,
as well the unshaken heart of well-rounded truth,
as the opinions of mortals in which there is no truth at all.
Yet none the less shalt thou learn these things also,—how passing right
through all things one should judge the things that seem to be

 

 Look at what the traveler in the proem learns

"Far, indeed, does it lie from the beaten track of men!
Meet it is that thou shouldst learn all things,
as well the unshaken heart of well-rounded truth,
as the opinions of mortals in which is no true belief at all."

I love this. Like Bran he is learning the "unshaken heart of well-rounded truth" but also the "opinions of mortals in which there is no truth at all"

So back to the unbirthing, hymeneal piercing at the black gate.

You suggest Sam as word and bran as hand, but I think George actually gives us a more clear vision if we look.

the name Bran means raven in Welsh. There is no way that this is lost on grrm. Let's follow this a little bit to find out which parts Sam and Bran are playing to the Black Gate's Hymen.

Claude Levi-Strauss points to Raven's being symbolically important because they have the connotation of messenger as well as being associated with both life and death. He feels that the Raven is a kind of mediator between those two and in some ways Bran too stands at a point between life and death.

Ravens are linked to fertility (think of Kutkh the raven spirit) in their association with life. The raven as messenger closely relates to the genetic "message" of the man being delivered to the fertile womb of the feminine.

 

So rather than the hand, I would tend to see Bran as the semen.

What does this make Sam? Well, as you note, he does say the words which allows the gate to open so he could push Bran in.....so if Bran is the Semen in this case that makes Sam, yes you guessed it, the "fat pink mast"

 

So to put it all together:

We have a long standing history between death and the erotic which even extends itself into divine learning from god (learning both objective truth and the opinions of men) which occurs through a sexualized going into the underworld or realm of gods (could have done this with dozens of other examples...The Inferno comes to mind, but yeah, gonna leave it at the one). While the student does the divine learning in the underworld they are a combination of life and death....alive, but in the underworld somewhere between...as is the Raven. Bran means raven. Bran goes through the black gate, the hymen which separates the world of the living and the dead by being ejaculated into the womb by Sam who is the fat pink mast. 

I suspect that after his gestation period is through and he is reborn into the world that the analogy will continue to carry.

Just to bring this around to magical swords because my recent conversation with @Curled Finger always makes me think about them: Sam is (and is invoking the fact) that he is the sword in the darkness. So as phallus piercing hymen to ejaculate Bran into the underworld Sam is quite literally the sword in the darkness.

[YOVMO]

On ‎11‎/‎19‎/‎2017 at 1:04 PM, Megorova said:

Though to me this theory seems unlikely. Because at that time dragons were still little. So if FM wanted to get rid of them, they could have done it with average arrows.

I believe that he was looking for ways to kill dragons. That they were little doesn't matter in my thinking because I believe the FM are looking to take down the wall and believe that they can only do this with dragon fire. The thinking goes that they would abduct and somehow bind themselves to a dragon (dragon horn?) and then, after taking out the wall, need to know how to kill it.

[Megorova]

3 hours ago, YOVMO said:

I believe that he was looking for ways to kill dragons. That they were little doesn't matter in my thinking because I believe the FM are looking to take down the wall and believe that they can only do this with dragon fire. The thinking goes that they would abduct and somehow bind themselves to a dragon (dragon horn?) and then, after taking out the wall, need to know how to kill it.

If FM will have control over dragons, then there's no need for them to kill them.

If they will control dragons, then they can order dragons to commit suicide (death by starvation, death by drowning in the sea, death by diving down from high fly and hitting ground, death by flying towards Sun), or kill each other, or they can just lock them somewhere, or send them away.

Also if FM were looking for a way to gain control over dragons, it's unlikely that they will be looking for this information in 7K. Because dragons were tamed in Essos, at Valyria.

Also FM would be against breaking The Wall. Because if it will go down, then the Others will kill many people, and turn them into wights. If what god will get the soul/life, depends on how that person died (Arya stealing three lives from the Lord of light, by preventing those guys from burning alive), then Many-Faced God won't get anyone, who will be killed by Others. Those souls/lives will be taken by whatever deity is giving power to Others. What Others do to humans, is against nature, against normal course of life and death. So FM will try to prevent Others from crossing The Wall, or will look for whoever can defeat them.

[YOVMO]

7 minutes ago, Megorova said:

If FM will have control over dragons, then there's no need for them to kill them.

If they will control dragons, then they can order dragons to commit suicide, or kill each other.

I hadn't thought about the idea that they could tell the dragons to off themselves. Possible i guess, but I am not even sure dragons bound to a dragon riders will would go ahead and just kill themselves. Who knows though, interesting. The reason, which you may guess, that I think that they would want the dragons dead is because the FM get their start in the 14 flames as slaves to the dragon lords. They are very anti dragon. 

7 minutes ago, Megorova said:

Also FM would be against breaking The Wall. Because if it will go down, then the Others will kill many people, and turn them into wights. If what god will get the soul/life, depends on how that person died (Arya stealing three lives from the Lord of light, by preventing those guys from burning alive), then Many-Faced God won't get anyone, who will be killed by Others.

I am not so sure that the FM would really oppose this. There is a difference between what they say and what they believe. I never bought the idea that JH was doing those killings for Arya because she stile three lives from the lord of light. That is insanity. What would the purpose be? The whole thing seems crazy. Not only would JH, as a faceless man, be more apt to side with the great other (and the goat god of qohor and the stranger and all the other death deities) over the lord of light, but it would be impossible to go around just assassinating everyone who stole a soul from the lord of light. Is he going to kill every Maester who helps a sick person? Will he kill Howland Reed for sparing Ned from getting killed by Arthur Dayne? I mean its just goofy. Further, the lord of light is a god...what is human time to the lord of light. You can't steal a soul from him. Maybe postpone delivery but all men die. Speaking of which, I believe that this is what the FM are up to...Valar Morghulis is more than just a pithy saying and philosophy, but the imperative by which the FM operate. They want to tank the wall and bring on the long night. They are going to try to kill everyone. All men must die.

7 minutes ago, Megorova said:

 

Those souls/lives will be taken by whatever deity is giving power to Others. What Others do to humans, is against nature, against normal course of life and death. So FM will try to prevent Others from crossing The Wall, or will look for whoever can defeat them.

The others would do exactly what Varys has been saying he wants to do all along...bring peace to the realm. Once people all die out and the wheel of feudalism is broken it will be an end to the suffering on mass scale.

 

I could (and probably am) very wrong here, it is just my current thinking on the topic. thanks for bearing with me.

[Megorova]

1 hour ago, YOVMO said:

I never bought the idea that JH was doing those killings for Arya because she stile three lives from the lord of light. That is insanity. What would the purpose be?

Maybe like this:

Arya saved three people from burning alive.

If they died that way, the Lord of Light would have gotten their souls.

By saving them, Arya stole three deaths from LoL (Lord of Light - LoL ).

Arya saved those people because Jaqen asked her to help them.

Basically Arya stole those 3 deaths from LoL, because of servant of Many-Faced God. Thus Many-Faced God prevented LoL from getting 3 souls, that were supposed to become LoL's. So now MFG is indebted to LoL. Because his servant changed natural course of events. And boses have to take responsibility for deeds of their subordinates.

But when Jaqen will kill three people, that will be chosen by Arya, the person who did the stealing, then MFG will give souls of 3 people killed by his servant, to LoL, as a payment for those 3 that were stolen. Also one of "Unburned Trio", was MFG's servant, so that servant had to work, to pay the debt.

And Jaqen couldn't just kill 3 random people, to sacrifice them to LoL. Those people/sacrifices were supposed to be specifically pointed out by Arya. She saved/stolen from LoL 3 people because of Jaqen - she killed/gave back to LoL 3 people thru Jaqen. Natural balance restored.

MFG gave 3 souls to LoL, they shaked hands, and went their separate ways.

[Damon_Tor]

On 11/14/2017 at 3:57 PM, hiemal said:

An intriguing possibility that begs the question of who knows both his name and his location. Quaithe, perhaps, or Ilyrio/Varys?

I think that Jeor would be a possible target. If Jaqen got sidetracked, he could have sent word to Braavos for replacement to find his way into the Watch, either as a new recruit or wearing the face and cloak of a Brother, and encourage the mutiny at Craster's. Perhaps Mance or even the father of someone who died at the Wall (looking at you, Royce).

Or maybe someone wanted to slay the Dragon in Chains? It seems that time made that hit, but you never know. . .

 

The problem I have with any mundane targets like Jeor or Aemon is the fact that he appears to be elite: it becomes clear later on that that the "true" facechanging is not something every faceless man is capable of. Most of them use mummer's tricks, and the next step up is the less reliable "glamour" illusions. I would expect them to save assassins of the highest caliber for people with truesight ability or protected by such (ie, the Sealord of Braavos specifically selecting bodyguards who can see through glamours). So it makes sense to send him to Bloodraven who would certainly see through a glamour.

[hiemal]

9 hours ago, Damon_Tor said:

The problem I have with any mundane targets like Jeor or Aemon is the fact that he appears to be elite: it becomes clear later on that that the "true" facechanging is not something every faceless man is capable of. Most of them use mummer's tricks, and the next step up is the less reliable "glamour" illusions. I would expect them to save assassins of the highest caliber for people with truesight ability or protected by such (ie, the Sealord of Braavos specifically selecting bodyguards who can see through glamours). So it makes sense to send him to Bloodraven who would certainly see through a glamour.

That's a good point. My main objection when I initially considered him was that he was still alive (sort of) but of course even Jaqen never promised a swift death. I wonder if the Faceless Men require an exact location for their target or if they have own means of divination? They do have a pool I believe to be tied to the moon so I could see scrying, for example. Or their own little birds. I don't think very many would have known where BR was or what he had become.

Who do you think hired them? My guess would be Quaithe but a case could be made for Varys/Illyrio.

[LynnS]

1 minute ago, hiemal said:

That's a good point. My main objection when I initially considered him was that he was still alive (sort of) but of course even Jaqen never promised a swift death. I wonder if the Faceless Men require an exact location for their target or if they have own means of divination? They do have a pool I believe to be tied to the moon so I could see scrying, for example. Or their own little birds. I don't think very many would have known where BR was or what he had become.

Who do you think hired them? My guess would be Quaithe but a case could be made for Varys/Illyrio.

I'm guessing they have access to glass candles.  I'm a little suspicious that Sam finds the Alchemist/Pate in the room with Marwyn at their first meeting and notices the smell of something burnt in the brazier along with a glass candle blazing.  Marwyn tells Sam that he already knows everything that Sam told Alleras.  So if Sam was being watched, then the FM may have been watching as well.      

[hiemal]

1 hour ago, LynnS said:

I'm guessing they have access to glass candles.  I'm a little suspicious that Sam finds the Alchemist/Pate in the room with Marwyn at their first meeting and notices the smell of something burnt in the brazier along with a glass candle blazing.  Marwyn tells Sam that he already knows everything that Sam told Alleras.  So if Sam was being watched, then the FM may have been watching as well.      

That makes sense. I wonder what the limitations of glass candles are? Maybe anything that happens in firelight in the same way that greenseers can see through weirwoods?

Using glass candles to give people visions: I wonder if someone must be in firelight in order to receive these visions?

[LynnS]

5 hours ago, hiemal said:

That makes sense. I wonder what the limitations of glass candles are? Maybe anything that happens in firelight in the same way that greenseers can see through weirwoods?

Using glass candles to give people visions: I wonder if someone must be in firelight in order to receive these visions?

Don't know really.  Only that I think braziers and burned offerings are used in conjunction with glass candles; that glass candles enhance the power of fire to see and communicate.  I think we get something of this when Varys tells how he was used by a certain man:

Quote

A Clash of Kings - Tyrion X

"One day at Myr, a certain man came to our folly. After the performance, he made an offer for me that my master found too tempting to refuse. I was in terror. I feared the man meant to use me as I had heard men used small boys, but in truth the only part of me he had need of was my manhood. He gave me a potion that made me powerless to move or speak, yet did nothing to dull my senses. With a long hooked blade, he sliced me root and stem, chanting all the while. I watched him burn my manly parts on a brazier. The flames turned blue, and I heard a voice answer his call, though I did not understand the words they spoke.

Although there is no mention of a glass candle, this is the only other time when a voice can be heard using the medium of fire.   According to Marwyn glass candles can be used to communicate over a distance, so I'm not sure you need one on each end.  

So it isn't really clear to me how Quaithe communicates with Dany. She knows something about glass candles since she tells Dany that glass candles are burning in the house of Urrathon NIghtwalker.  Her connection to Dany seems to have something to do with creating a link through touch:

Quote

A Clash of Kings - Daenerys III

The woman took a step backward. "You must leave this city soon, Daenerys Targaryen, or you will never be permitted to leave it at all."

Dany's wrist still tingled where Quaithe had touched her. "Where would you have me go?" she asked.

"To go north, you must journey south. To reach the west, you must go east. To go forward you must go back, and to touch the light you must pass beneath the shadow."

Quaithe's red lacquered wooden mask is curious.  I'm reminded of Morna's white mask made of weirwood and also that the device on the shield of the KoLT is a red face.  So perhaps Quaithe has a connection to the old gods.  She herself is faceless in a sense.

I wonder if Quaithe's medium is actually water rather than fire.  Her eyes are described as wet of watery rather than burning like hot coals. 

Quote

A Dance with Dragons - Daenerys X

"Quaithe?" Dany called. "Where are you, Quaithe?"

Then she saw. Her mask is made of starlight.

"Remember who you are, Daenerys," the stars whispered in a woman's voice. "The dragons know. Do you?"

 

I also wonder why the faceless men collect the faces of infants:

Quote

A Dance with Dragons - The Ugly Little Girl

A thousand faces were gazing down on her.

They hung upon the walls, before her and behind her, high and low, everywhere she looked, everywhere she turned. She saw old faces and young faces, pale faces and dark faces, smooth faces and wrinkled faces, freckled faces and scarred faces, handsome faces and homely faces, men and women, boys and girls, even babes, smiling faces, frowning faces, faces full of greed and rage and lust, bald faces and faces bristling with hair. Masks, she told herself, it's only masks, but even as she thought the thought, she knew it wasn't so. They were skins.

 

[ravenous reader]

12 hours ago, hiemal said:

That makes sense. I wonder what the limitations of glass candles are? Maybe anything that happens in firelight in the same way that greenseers can see through weirwoods?

Using glass candles to give people visions: I wonder if someone must be in firelight in order to receive these visions?

I'm not sure how it works, but there is certainly a connection between 'flame-reading' and 'weirwood-reading', modalities which on closer inspection are not all that dissimilar as first meets the eye -- both being examples of 'dark-seeing,' which is the essential component -- as pointed out by @40 Thousand Skeletons, whom I consider to be the foremost 'telepathy guru' when it comes to tracing GRRM's enduring preoccupation with these things:

On 5/25/2017 at 4:26 AM, 40 Thousand Skeletons said:

 

Telepathy Explained

The mechanics of telepathy in ASOIAF can be difficult to decipher, but luckily we have some other stories written by GRRM to help give us insight. Let’s start with the basics. Obviously the first explicit example of telepathy in the story is when we see the Stark children begin to bond with their direwolves and have wolf dreams. Later this knowledge or warging is expanded so that we are now aware of general skinchanging of animals, dragon riding, and Bran’s creepy ability to skinchange Hodor. So one big component of telepathy in the story is skinchanging/dragon riding. Skinchanging is a big part of GRRM’s Thousand Worlds universe. Particularly, an enemy of mankind called the Hrangan Minds utilized telepathy to control various slave races of creatures and wage war against humans.

Jojen Reed introduces us to the second big component of telepathy, prophetic dreams. It seems that certain people can receive prophetic dreams, including at least Bran and Jojen. And it seems that a weakened physical/mental state can trigger the onset of these visions, like Bran in his coma or Jojen with his near-fatal Greywater fever. And the concept of sending dreams to manipulate characters has been used by GRRM before, particularly in the story And Seven Times Never Kill Man, in which men are tricked into burning their winter food supply and killing their children, which is essentially what the War of the 5 Kings was in ASOIAF. Additionally, a common characteristic of characters who receive dreams or spend time skinchanging is that they tend to forego eating, namely Bran, Melisandre, Lancel, and Maester Aemon. And if that’s true, it implies that Baelor the Blessed, who died of fasting and is generally thought to have been a bit crazy, was likely receiving many powerful visions as well.

Third, we are introduced to the general concept that telepathic abilities can be trained and/or amplified, particularly by darkness and trauma. The best example of this so far is probably Arya’s training in the House of Black and White. Arya is made blind, intermittently attacked by an unknown silent assailant, and surrounded by cats. Finally, after suffering a good deal of frustration, Arya is able to skinchange into a cat while awake and identify her assailant as the Kindly Man. Similarly, Bran is able to train his warg powers while in the darkness of the WF crypts, and he takes full control of Hodor for the first time when they are attacked by wights and in mortal danger. Additionally, it may simply be the fact that Bran is crippled that makes him powerful enough to skinchange Hodor. And just to drive this point home, we are explicitly told in TWOIAF that the priests of Boash back in the day wore eyeless hoods, because: only in darkness, they believed, would their third eye open, allowing them to see the "higher truths" of creation that lay concealed behind the world's illusions.

This is a paraphrase or restatement of Bran's greenseeing quest:

Quote

A Storm of Swords - Bran I

"Then you teach me." Bran still feared the three-eyed crow who haunted his dreams sometimes, pecking endlessly at the skin between his eyes and telling him to fly. "You're a greenseer."

"No," said Jojen, "only a boy who dreams. The greenseers were more than that. They were wargs as well, as you are, and the greatest of them could wear the skins of any beast that flies or swims or crawls, and could look through the eyes of the weirwoods as well, and see the truth that lies beneath the world.

It's important to recognise the paradox that though the trees seem to have 'eyes', it is not through the eyes per se that the greenseer is able to 'see,' given that the eyes of the trees have been gouged out (hence they bleed from empty sockets); in other words, the trees have been blinded!

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Fourth, we are introduced to the concept that drugs can affect telepathic abilities, namely sweetsleep for dampening telepathy, and shade of the evening and weirwood paste for enhancing it. This concept has been used by GRRM before, particularly in the story Nightflyers.

GRRM's text abounds in hippy references to consciousness-altering drugs 'opening the doors of perception,' my favourites being 'silver seaweed' ('see-weed') mentioned by Patchface, and the 'sunless sea' of Bloodraven's greenseeing cavern (=dark sea = dark see[ing]), the latter phrase taken from Coleridge's poem written under the influence of opium, basically 'milk of the poppy'.

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Fifth, we are introduced to the concept that dead telepaths can send their consciousness into something else when Varamyr dies and goes into first the weirnet, and then his wolf. Presumably, many COTF may be living second lives inside the weirnet and the animals of the woods. More specifically, it is implied that the dead COTF skinchangers actually jump from animal to animal over time. The reason I think this is because BR tells Bran that there are COTF inside 100% of the ravens around their cave. Given the scarcity of skinchangers (purportedly 1:1000) and the relative youth of these ravens, that must mean the COTF skinchangers are forever trading in dead ravens for new ones in order to live basically infinite “second lives”. Because if the COTF only got to live a single “second life” inside a single raven, there should really be zero ravens with COTF inside them. And considering that Varamyr’s blood went into the weirnet when he died, and that there are tons of COTF bones lying around the cave around weirwood roots, it seems that the weirnet is facilitating the process by providing a sort of permanent storage vessel for the souls of the COTF. This whole process may sound weird, but keep in mind that in Nightflyers, telepaths were actually able to basically download their consciousnesses into an advanced computer upon death, so really anything could happen. It’s GRRM.

Now, one aspect of telepathy that has not yet been made explicit in ASOIAF is telekinesis, or teke as GRRM calls it in his sci-fi work. It may be that whatever force is animating the wights is doing so with teke. We have examples of wights moving around without brains, like Othor’s severed arm clawing at Jon during their fight and a headless bear decapitating Thoren Smallwood. So it appears that this is not some kind of skinchanging similar to what we have seen, as the wights are dead and presumably lack consciousness, especially if headless. Additionally, the wights are clumsy, while reanimated people like Coldhands and Beric appear fully coordinated and conscious. This last detail in particular makes me think that teke is the likely explanation for how the wights move around, because it reminds me of another clumsy corpse from Nightflyers. Additionally, we learned in Nightflyers that gravity fundamentally suppresses teke abilities for some unexplained reason. Being in free fall or being in space greatly enhances teke abilities. The major implication of this for ASOIAF is that it may explain why Bran didn't die from his fall. The combination of being in momentary free fall coupled with facing death may have pushed Bran's mind over the edge and unlocked his teke abilities for the first time.

The last significant aspect of telepathy, and one that hasn’t yet been made explicit in ASOIAF, is the concept that telepathy is intrinsically linked to our emotions and to love. Specifically, in Nightflyers, it is stated explicitly that having sex with someone is the most potent method of forming a telepathic bond with them.

I'm waiting to see what things Bran is going to be moved to do with his powers 'for love'!

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For the purposes of explaining the Master Plan of the Old Gods, the most important aspect of telepathy to focus on is the concept that darkness and trauma can unlock, amplify, and train telepathic abilities. And I also want to point out, since Red Priests play a significant role in the story, that staring into flames for hours on end is basically the same thing as being in darkness. Have you ever tried staring at a fire for a long time? It blinds you. If you don’t want to take my word for it, just listen to my good friend, Ser Davos Seaworth:

The guards will huddle close to those torches. A little warmth, a little light, they're a comfort on a night like this. Yet that will blind them, so they will not see us pass.

And here is another Davos quote:

He lifted his eyes to stare up at the torch. He looked for a long time, never blinking, watching the flames shift and shimmer. He tried to see beyond them, to peer through the fiery curtain and glimpse whatever lived back there... but there was nothing, only fire, and after a time his eyes began to water. God-blind and tired, Davos curled up on the straw and gave himself to sleep.

If staring into flames is effectively the same as wearing an eyeless hood, then Mel’s visions (as well as those of Thoros, Moqorro, and Benerro) may actually be from the Old Gods, and fire may have no special magical properties other than facilitating temporary blindness. So while most readers assume that Mel is using some sort of “fire magic” and that greenseers use some totally different type of magic, I really don’t see any functional difference between Mel staring into flames and Bran being in the crypts.

Bravo (where is the 'clap emoji'?) -- elegantly expressed and one of the best insights I've ever read on the forum!  

Further examples of 'fire-blindness':

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A Game of Thrones - Jon V

Maester Aemon listened silently, blind eyes fixed on the fire, but Chett's face darkened with each word. 

 

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A Dance with Dragons - Tyrion V

"Aye," said Tyrion, "but I'm small enough to hide behind a duck." He thrust half a dozen torches into the brazier's glowing coals and watched the oiled rags flare up. Don't stare at the fire, he told himself. The flames would leave him night blind.

 

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A Dance with Dragons - Tyrion VIII

And perhaps he was not so wrong. Almost a decade had passed since the Laughing Lion headed out from Lannisport, and Gerion had never returned. The men Lord Tywin sent to seek after him had traced his course as far as Volantis, where half his crew had deserted him and he had bought slaves to replace them. No free man would willingly sign aboard a ship whose captain spoke openly of his intent to sail into the Smoking Sea. "So those are fires of the Fourteen Flames we're seeing, reflected on the clouds?"

"Fourteen or fourteen thousand. What man dares count them? It is not wise for mortals to look too deeply at those fires, my friend. Those are the fires of god's own wrath, and no human flame can match them. We are small creatures, men."

The direct textual proof that fire- and weirnet- 'reading' are connected, in fact that fire-reading can facilitate weirnet access, is given by the curious detail GRRM slips in of how Bran is able to access the Winterfell heart tree via staring into the fire rather than grabbing on to a tree root, as one might have expected:

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Nor will your sight be limited to your godswood. The singers carved eyes into their heart trees to awaken them, and those are the first eyes a new greenseer learns to use ...

but in time you will see well beyond the trees themselves."

What is your interpretation of what 'seeing beyond the trees themselves' entails?

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"When?" Bran wanted to know. "In a year, or three, or ten. That I have not glimpsed. It will come in time, I promise you. But I am tired now, and the trees are calling me. We will resume on the morrow."

Hodor carried Bran back to his chamber, muttering "Hodor" in a low voice as Leaf went before them with a torch. He had hoped that Meera and Jojen would be there, so he could tell them what he had seen, but their snug alcove in the rock was cold and empty. Hodor eased Bran down onto his bed, covered him with furs, and made a fire for them. A thousand eyes, a hundred skins, wisdom deep as the roots of ancient trees.

Watching the flames, Bran decided he would stay awake till Meera came back. Jojen would be unhappy, he knew, but Meera would be glad for him, He did not remember closing his eyes.

... but then somehow he was back at Winterfell again, in the gods-wood looking down upon his father. Lord Eddard seemed much younger this time. His hair was brown, with no hint of grey in it, his head bowed. "... let them grow up close as brothers, with only love between them," he prayed, "and let my lady wife find it in her heart to forgive ..."

"Father." Bran's voice was a whisper in the wind, a rustle in the leaves. "Father, it's me. It's Bran. Brandon."

Eddard Stark lifted his head and looked long at the weirwood, frowning, but he did not speak. He cannot see me, Bran realized, despairing. He wanted to reach out and touch him, but all that he could do was watch and listen. I am in the tree. I am inside the heart tree, looking out of its red eyes...

Red eyes of blood and fire.

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Anyways, I already mentioned the training of Bran, Jojen, and Arya, but there is a notably long list of characters who may have undergone some telepathic training/enhancement in order to influence their actions, primarily through powerful dreams/visions:

• Dany was given shade of the evening and trapped in darkness with a group of powerful telepaths.
• Ned had his leg badly broken and was later trapped in darkness in the black cells with little food or water.
• Doran Martell has gout and is crippled in a manner sort of similar to Bran. And it appears he is at least able to receive communications from Marwyn via glass candle.
• Bloodraven lost use of an eye, as did the whore Yna and probably Euron as well.
• Varys was given a potion that paralyzed him and had his genitals removed (and heard a voice speak from the flames).
• Similarly, the Unsullied have all had their genitals burned on the altar of their Great Goddess who’s name only they know, not to mention all the other traumatic things Unsullied go through in their training. Considering they have all received a universally high degree of telepathic training and will hypothetically obey their Great Goddess should she call upon them, the Unsullied are prime candidates for being enslaved by the horn Dragonbinder at the beginning of TWOW.
• Theon has also had a few body parts removed, ostensibly including his penis, and his actions are definitely central to shit going down in the North.
• Jaime had his hand cut off and almost died.
• Tyrion had his nose cut off and almost died.
• Little Finger was terribly wounded in his duel against Brandon.
• Mance Rayder was mauled by a shadowcat.
• Harlon Greyjoy was suffering from greyscale, couldn’t speak, was trapped in a windowless tower, and telepathically called out to Euron (who was likely blinded in one eye by that same greyscale epidemic) begging for death.
• Euron’s crew of mutes have all had their tongues removed, in what appears to be a successful attempt by Euron to replicate his experience with Harlon. And then Aeron Damphair is tortured and kept in darkness by Euron to unlock his telepathic abilities, which will presumably be utilized in the upcoming naval battle to protect Euron’s ship from the krakens that Euron will summon to destroy the enemy fleet.
• And speaking of mutes, Wex might be carrying out the marching orders of the Old Gods. He is certainly central to negotiations between factions in the North.
• The Mad King was kidnapped and tortured at Duskendale. We don’t know the exact details of his torture, but we do know he descended fully into madness after this episode.
• Jon was stabbed and reached out to Ghost as he died.
• Robb was shot by crossbow fire and reached out to Grey Wind as he died.
• Beric, Catelyn, and Coldhands all died and were somehow reanimated. Additionally, it may be that their blood was absorbed into the weirnet (like Varamyr) and that this was a necessary step in their reanimation (though that doesn’t really help explain wtf is  going on with UnGregor).
• Patchface also died and came back somehow and now recites prophetic nonsense to people.
• Maggy the Frog seems to also be a reanimated corpse based on Cersei’s description, and death may have helped her to receive visions of the future.

Maggy the Frog is a maege in the vein of @LmL's 'weirwood goddess' concept.  She like the weirwood singers-greenseers needs a blood sacrifice in order to see:

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A Feast for Crows - Cersei VII

'... allowed Maggy the Frog to taste my morrows in a drop of blood.' 

Which is related to this passage...

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A Dance with Dragons - Bran III

Then, as he watched, a bearded man forced a captive down onto his knees before the heart tree. A white-haired woman stepped toward them through a drift of dark red leaves, a bronze sickle in her hand.

"No," said Bran, "no, don't," but they could not hear him, no more than his father had. The woman grabbed the captive by the hair, hooked the sickle round his throat, and slashed. And through the mist of centuries the broken boy could only watch as the man's feet drummed against the earth … but as his life flowed out of him in a red tide, Brandon Stark could taste the blood.

 

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Finally, I would like to point out an interesting parallel that GRRM has made. You know that feeling you get when you are reading a super good book and you basically block out everything else going on around you and just fall into the page? I think GRRM considers that in itself to be another method of telepathic connection, the only difference being that it’s a one way connection. The reason I think this is because we get a description of Sam and his time spent in the library at Castle Black:

Sam did not know how long it had been since last he’d slept, but scarce an inch remained of the fat tallow candle he’d lit when starting on the ragged bundle of loose pages that he’d found tied up in twine. He was beastly tired, but it was hard to stop. One more book, he had told himself, then I’ll stop. One more folio, just one more. One more page, then I’ll go up and rest and get a bite to eat. But there was always another page after that one, and another after that, and another book waiting underneath the pile. I’ll just take a quick peek to see what this one is about, he’d think, and before he knew he would be halfway through it. He had not eaten since that bowl of bean-and-bacon soup with Pyp and Grenn.

So again we see the same symptoms of losing sense of time, not sleeping, and not eating. A good book is effectively like a good telepathic connection. And along those lines, a library is comparable to the weirnet.

And a 'folio' is a 'leaf'!

@Seams has pointed out that the injunction to Dany to 'always take the first door on the right' in the House of the Undying is akin to reading (at least for left-to-right readers), always turning the next page to the right.  Given that symbolically the House of the Undying and surrounding trees is widely taken to be an 'inverse' weirnet, negotiating ones way through the tree archive is a form of reading.

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In fact, you could make the case that the collection of human knowledge at the citadel may rival, or in a sense may even be a competitor to, the collection of COTF knowledge in the weirnet. The real difference is that the humans who accumulate that knowledge all die eventually, while the greenseers of the COTF may all be very much alive. And on a more interesting meta level, you could interpret this info to mean that GRRM himself is the ultimate puppet master telepath in ASOIAF, and that he is trying to manipulate all the readers into thinking certain things with his awesome telepathic powers.

Just so.  GRRM is the ultimate master greenseer (A 'gardener' indeed).  As a point of interest, the name 'Plantagenet', given GRRM's interest in English history, means 'gardener' or 'sapling', so GRRM on some level also considers himself royalty!

 

6 hours ago, LynnS said:

Quaithe's red lacquered wooden mask is curious.  I'm reminded of Morna's white mask made of weirwood and also that the device on the shield of the KoLT is a red face.  So perhaps Quaithe has a connection to the old gods.  She herself is faceless in a sense.

I wonder if Quaithe's medium is actually water rather than fire.  Her eyes are described as wet of watery rather than burning like hot coals. 

 

Great catch Lynn!  The passage in question:

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A Clash of Kings - Daenerys III

Dany had not noticed Quaithe in the crowd, yet there she stood, eyes wet and shiny behind the implacable red lacquer mask. "What mean you, my lady?"

She's also connected to 'moonlight' which in turn is frequently seen in conjunction with water magic (which in my opinion is the same thing as ice magic):

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A Game of Thrones - Prologue

It was cold. Shivering, Will clung more tightly to his perch. His face pressed hard against the trunk of the sentinel. He could feel the sweet, sticky sap on his cheek.

A shadow emerged from the dark of the wood. It stood in front of Royce. Tall, it was, and gaunt and hard as old bones, with flesh pale as milk. Its armor seemed to change color as it moved; here it was white as new-fallen snow, there black as shadow, everywhere dappled with the deep grey-green of the trees. The patterns ran like moonlight on water with every step it took.

Will heard the breath go out of Ser Waymar Royce in a long hiss. "Come no farther," the lordling warned. His voice cracked like a boy's. He threw the long sable cloak back over his shoulders, to free his arms for battle, and took his sword in both hands. The wind had stopped. It was very cold.

The Other slid forward on silent feet. In its hand was a longsword like none that Will had ever seen. No human metal had gone into the forging of that blade. It was alive with moonlight, translucent, a shard of crystal so thin that it seemed almost to vanish when seen edge-on. There was a faint blue shimmer to the thing, a ghost-light that played around its edges, and somehow Will knew it was sharper than any razor.

 

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A Game of Thrones - Daenerys V

They rode to the lake the Dothraki called the Womb of the World, surrounded by a fringe of reeds, its water still and calm. A thousand thousand years ago, Jhiqui told her, the first man had emerged from its depths, riding upon the back of the first horse.

The procession waited on the grassy shore as Dany stripped and let her soiled clothing fall to the ground. Naked, she stepped gingerly into the water. Irri said the lake had no bottom

'The lake had no bottom...' hence a 'bottomless' body of 'black water'...Remind you of anything?

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, but Dany felt soft mud squishing between her toes as she pushed through the tall reeds. The moon floated on the still black waters, shattering and re-forming as her ripples washed over it. Goose pimples rose on her pale skin as the coldness crept up her thighs and kissed her lower lips. 

 

 

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A Dance with Dragons - Daenerys X

"Quaithe?" Dany called. "Where are you, Quaithe?"

Then she saw. Her mask is made of starlight.

"Remember who you are, Daenerys," the stars whispered in a woman's voice. "The dragons know. Do you?"

The 'language of starlight' is also associated with the weirwood:

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A Storm of Swords - Samwell III

Sam made a whimpery sound. "It's not fair . . ."

"Fair." The raven landed on his shoulder. "Fair, far, fear." It flapped its wings, and screamed along with Gilly. The wights were almost on her. He heard the dark red leaves of the weirwood rustling, whispering to one another in a tongue he did not know. The starlight itself seemed to stir, and all around them the trees groaned and creaked. Sam Tarly turned the color of curdled milk, and his eyes went wide as plates. Ravens! They were in the weirwood, hundreds of them, thousands, perched on the bone-white branches, peering between the leaves. He saw their beaks open as they screamed, saw them spread their black wings. Shrieking, flapping, they descended on the wights in angry clouds. They swarmed round Chett's face and pecked at his blue eyes, they covered the Sisterman like flies, they plucked gobbets from inside Hake's shattered head. There were so many that when Sam looked up, he could not see the moon.

"Go," said the bird on his shoulder. "Go, go, go."

 

[LynnS]

36 minutes ago, ravenous reader said:

She's also connected to 'moonlight' which in turn is frequently seen in conjunction with water magic (which in my opinion is the same thing as ice magic):

Yes and this one as well:

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A Dance with Dragons - Daenerys II

Moonlight shone in the woman's eyes. "To show you the way."

"I remember the way. I go north to go south, east to go west, back to go forward. And to touch the light I have to pass beneath the shadow." She squeezed the water from her silvery hair. "I am half-sick of riddling. In Qarth I was a beggar, but here I am a queen. I command you—"

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A Dance with Dragons - Daenerys X

Off in the distance, a wolf howled. The sound made her feel sad and lonely, but no less hungry. As the moon rose above the grasslands, Dany slipped at last into a restless sleep.

She dreamed. All her cares fell away from her, and all her pains as well, and she seemed to float upward into the sky. She was flying once again, spinning, laughing, dancing, as the stars wheeled around her and whispered secrets in her ear. "To go north, you must journey south. To reach the west, you must go east. To go forward, you must go back. To touch the light you must pass beneath the shadow."

"Quaithe?" Dany called. "Where are you, Quaithe?"

The howling of the wolf reminds me of Melisandre's vision of the boy with a wolf head howling and here it shows up in association with Quaithe.

For fun:  the Wolf Moon comes in January 2018 and a 'Blue Moon', another full moon at the end of the month - 'once there were two moons in the sky...'

https://www.almanac.com/content/full-moon-january  

 

[hiemal]

6 hours ago, LynnS said:

Don't know really.  Only that I think braziers and burned offerings are used in conjunction with glass candles; that glass candles enhance the power of fire to see and communicate.  I think we get something of this when Varys tells how he was used by a certain man:

Although there is no mention of a glass candle, this is the only other time when a voice can be heard using the medium of fire.   According to Marwyn glass candles can be used to communicate over a distance, so I'm not sure you need one on each end.  

 

Agreed. But I think you might need a flame? In other words, the connection might not be directly into the subjects mind, but by way of say a candle's flame into the eye or even by shaping shadows to create a projection. I think that there are limitations on what can be seen through a glass candle, in other words and that in the same way that Bran cannot see what takes place beyond the sight of a weirwood I think a glass candle can only influence that which takes place by firelight?

7 hours ago, LynnS said:

So it isn't really clear to me how Quaithe communicates with Dany. She knows something about glass candles since she tells Dany that glass candles are burning in the house of Urrathon NIghtwalker.  Her connection to Dany seems to have something to do with creating a link through touch:

Quaithe's red lacquered wooden mask is curious.  I'm reminded of Morna's white mask made of weirwood and also that the device on the shield of the KoLT is a red face.  So perhaps Quaithe has a connection to the old gods.  She herself is faceless in a sense.

I wonder if Quaithe's medium is actually water rather than fire.  Her eyes are described as wet of watery rather than burning like hot coals. 

 

Interesting idea! I'll think on that, but I want to add that the main objection I have to the idea of Quaithe sending the FM is that I think Melisandre is probably already her tool in this. This obviously depends on Quaithe/Shiera- which raises the possibility of scrying in pools of blood for example?

7 hours ago, LynnS said:

I also wonder why the faceless men collect the faces of infants:

 

They would be the DarkNet/New Moon Pool version of the undergrown weirwoods (like in the Nightfort) and tiny dragon skulls in the Red Keep? I think they probably take the face of everyone the give the Gift to and I don't see them balking at crib death.

[LynnS]

2 minutes ago, hiemal said:

Agreed. But I think you might need a flame? In other words, the connection might not be directly into the subjects mind, but by way of say a candle's flame into the eye or even by shaping shadows to create a projection. I think that there are limitations on what can be seen through a glass candle, in other words and that in the same way that Bran cannot see what takes place beyond the sight of a weirwood I think a glass candle can only influence that which takes place by firelight?

To re-phrase, I think a glass candle enhances the ability to see fire visions or communicate with another directly.

I'm not sure if Shiera Sea-star exists as a character in the story; but if she does, her name Sea-Star connects her to water.  Sea-star is another name for starfish or asteroidean.   So a red mask made of starlight?

[hiemal]

44 minutes ago, ravenous reader said:

I'm not sure how it works, but there is certainly a connection between 'flame-reading' and 'weirwood-reading', modalities which on closer inspection are not all that dissimilar as first meets the eye -- both being examples of 'dark-seeing,' which is the essential component -- as pointed out by @40 Thousand Skeletons, whom I consider to be the foremost 'telepathy guru' when it comes to tracing GRRM's enduring preoccupation with these things:

This is a paraphrase or restatement of Bran's greenseeing quest:

It's important to recognise the paradox that though the trees seem to have 'eyes', it is not through the eyes per se that the greenseer is able to 'see,' given that the eyes of the trees have been gouged out (hence they bleed from empty sockets); in other words, the trees have been blinded!

I think the red leaves are the True Fire- like the eyes they receive the solar flame. Perhaps the trees weep at what they have seen?

57 minutes ago, ravenous reader said:

What is your interpretation of what 'seeing beyond the trees themselves' entails?

 

Seeing through the "loose" souls in the weirnet, those "in circulation". Bloodraven's 1000 eyes, for example. I don't know if that is an option with glass candles- I think the parameters changed with adaptation of the Firenet from the weirnet.

1 hour ago, ravenous reader said:

 

 

Maggy the Frog is a maege in the vein of @LmL's 'weirwood goddess' concept.  She like the weirwood singers-greenseers needs a blood sacrifice in order to see:

 

 

What is the difference between taking the blood directly and using it to activate a glass candle? And the weirnet? Bran takes the blood of the wierwood in a paste to first tap into the weirnet like Maggie takes Cersei's blood. Bran's ancestors bought into the weirnet with blood sacrifice, but I don't think blood magic works that way- I think it is "primal" magic which directly taps into soul energy. The Glass Candle operates in this way, like a blood powered pay phone that requires a fresh sacrifice with each use (I suspect) but not a long term commitment like the weirnet?

[hiemal]

21 minutes ago, LynnS said:

To re-phrase, I think a glass candle enhances the ability to see fire visions or communicate with another directly.

I'm not sure if Shiera Sea-star exists as a character in the story; but if she does, her name Sea-Star connects her to water.  Sea-star is another name for starfish or asteroidean.   So a red mask made of starlight?

I always connected the mask with Bloodraven's eye? Perhaps a means of concealment from his gaze? A lot of tinfoil here, obviously, but I get a kind of Oberon/Titania feel from BR/Shiera- so "Ill met by star light"?